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My colourful 48 pages Astrology e-book, yours for a gold coin donation, or whatever you wish... Make a contribution and I will email you my Astrology e-book. No other payment necessary, no email signups, no spam or other trickery. Click the e-book cover above for details and previews. Cheers, Paola Emma

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360 degrees in the making: reflections on the Sabian symbols of Elsie Wheeler and Marc Edmund Jones.

I am the creator of Living Moon Astrology, and author of all posts, pages and tutorials here.
I daily update the astrological data, and publish regular forecasts.

You can navigate this site in many ways: from the entries on the top menu or the same entries in the left sidebar. In this sidebar you can also look up monthly entries in the Archive, the Categories and Tags Cloud, or simply input the item you are looking for in the Search box below.
Many more items of interest can be found in the right sidebar.

The July 13 Cancer Solar Eclipse (20°41′)began the cycle and the August 11 Leo Solar Eclipse (18°41′) will end it.
The July 28 Aquarius Total Lunar Eclipse (04°44′), at 6.20 am, represents the culmination of the whole period, right in the middle of it, and it is indeed a very special event, not only to astrologers but astronomers as well, because of its length, a whopping one hour and 42 minutes, the longest lasting of the whole 21st century.
The effect of Eclipses is often long lasting, extending for months and even years past the actual event.

On Sunday, July 22, at , at 7 am, the Sun entered the Fixed Fire Sign of Leo
The Sun will transit Leo until August 23, 2.08 pm, with the ingress into Virgo

Virgo Moon

New to Crescent Moon Phase

The WANING MOON TRANSITS VIRGO from Sunday, August 12, 1.58 pm, to Tuesday, August 14, 2.56 pm, with the ingress into LIBRA.

The LEO NEW MOON PHASE, also a PARTIAL SOLAR ECLIPSE on 18° LEO starts on Saturday, August 11, 7.57 pm, and ends on Wednesday, August 15, 2.28 am, with the LIBRA CRESCENT MOON PHASE.

Latest cosmic news

MARSwill re-enters CAPRICORN on August 13, and again AQUARIUS, in direct motion, on September 11.VENUS entered LIBRA on Tuesday, August 7, at 9.27 am. VENUS will transit LIBRA until September 9, to enter SCORPIO. Due to Retrogradation (from October 6 to November 16) VENUS will return to Libra on November 1 and December 3 2018. Please click HERE to read a post on this Venus in Libra transit: ‘Peacemaker to the rescue…’.URANUSwill briefly return to Aries on November 7, and will re-enter Taurus, for good, only on March 6 2019. After that the Uranus-Taurus’ transit will last until 2025.MERCURY turns RETROGRADE in LEO from Wednesday, July 25.MERCURY will turn DIRECT again on August 19.MERCURY entered the FIXED FIRE SIGN of LEO on Friday, June 29, at 3.16 pm.MERCURY will transit LEO until September 6, 12.38 pm.MARS STATIONARY RETROGRADE in AQUARIUS, since June 27.The Retro motion of MARS will last until August 28 and cover the degrees between 9th AQUARIUS and 28th CAPRICORN.

Dear reader, please notice that, at the moment, I am busy streamlining the navigation on my site, in the hope of making it easier for you to find the articles you may be interested in. I realized recently that the site is difficult to navigate because of the way it has been structured, in a blog form, with recent articles on top and old ones lost in the great beyond. While searching myself for a post I had written few years back I was unable to find it! I am now collecting all the posts on similar subjects under the same heading on the menu bar. There is in fact lots more to this site that it is apparent at first.

This is still a work in process and will take some time. Thank you for your support throughout the years, Paola Emma4

♣ ♣ ♣ In the garden Pisces is a very fertile, particularly suitable for growing water plants, like Water Chestnuts and Lotus. A great time for propagating cuttings, grafting, irrigation, pruning to encourage re-growth, but not potatoes that may sprout too soon. Romantic garden walks and picnics could do well too.

♥ ♥ ♥ Healing Herbs: Echinacea, Eyebright, Golden Seal and Mugwort.

A note: the garden activities associated with the Moon Sign depend also on the cycle the Moon is in. The Moon transiting through a fertile or productive Sign will no be so favorable if the Phase is not a productive one, and vice-versa. For best results the Sign and Phase of the Moon have to be considered together.

Crescent Moon

The Crescent Moon occurs half way through the first week of the Waxing cycle, when the Moon is transiting 45 degrees ahead of the Sun and looks like a beautiful crescent in the western sky after sunset. Psychologically this is an enthusiastic time, in which lots of ideas crowd our mind and we may feel that the sky is the limit. It is a slightly naïve Moon time, but also one full of hopes and dreams (the bright crescent shows now the shadowy sphere of the future Full Moon. The energy of the Moon however needs maturing at this stage and grounding. The first difficulties may appear, the first chinks in the armor; but the challenge is not strong enough yet for us to build up on it.

♣ ♣ ♣ In the garden this is an excellent growing time: everything can go in now, but in particular leafy vegetables and all plants that we grow for their above the ground parts, but only when the Moon is transiting through the very fertile Water Signs or the productive Signs Taurus, Libra and Capricorn.

First Quarter

The Moon is now 90 degrees ahead of the Sun, a right angle, very powerful. We meet some serious obstacle on our way. The goal is still strongly in view (Full Moon) but something or someone seem intent at stopping us or hinder our progress. This is the most critical point in the waxing period. It is important that we meet the challenge now, but it is also essential that we don’t go to war with people around us, blaming them for our difficulties, which are instead just a natural phase of our journey. There is something a bit black and white in this Moon’s position and the attention is perhaps focused too much on outside circumstances.

♣ ♣ ♣ In the garden this is the demarcation time between the first and second weeks of the Moon cycle, an important boundary, because different types of plants can now go in, those we grow for their fruit or seedpods (tomatoes, beans etc.). The Moon needs also to be transiting a fertile or productive Sign.

Triple Hurray for Mercury entering Aquarius today. It has been a serious and practical stretch for Mercury during his transit in Capricorn, from January 8 to today. For some of us it has meant a somewhat gloomy frame of mind, this often too ponderous Mercury making everything feel hard, difficult or just sad. While, positively, it has been an ideal time to concentrate on practicalities, proceeding with method and caution and thus achieving much for our efforts. Now the wind of change is upon us again. Mercury enters maverick Aquarius today, while the Moon enters fiery Aries and aligns to Uranus, thus forming a favourable aspect to Mercury (sextile = 60 degrees distance), the latter approaching also a sextile to Uranus, exact early tomorrow, January 29. This is a combination for action, eureka moments, acts of daring and passion, zesty conversations, intuition working hand in hand with reason and logic, lateral thinking, inventiveness, original ideas, great for getting together with same minded people, finding new ways to tackle old problems.

The Lunar Transits on January 28

The Moon is rapidly separating from the Sun, reaching 60 degrees distance today, well into her active Crescent phase. She is moving from the breezy sextile to Mercury just described to a powerful conjunction to Uranus, bringing unexpected and hopefully exciting events and people in our lives, and finally, later, to a square to Pluto, indicating some subterranean eruption calling for emotional resourcefulness and the courage to face things head on. The Moon in Aries can take it all in her stride; fierce and brave, she drive us to act out our impulses, not too concerned about possible consequences.

Moon with Ceres and Uranus in Aries – Venus with Vesta in Pisces

The Asteroid Goddesses, all manifestation of the One Feminine principle, the Yin in nature and the psyche, are coming to the fore today too, with the Moon becoming conjunct Ceres (Demeter to the Greeks) who has just separated from Uranus, while Venus will be aligned to Vesta in Pisces. The Moon, Ceres and Uranus, what an odd company this is! Two maternal archetypes transiting the most masculine Sign of them all, Aries, accompanied by the very masculine and cold Uranus. This multiple transit invites mothers and carers of both sexes to be brave and independent today, showing the world that you are not just a passive, self-effacing, nurturing guardian, but that you have indeed your own ideas and needs time to do things to please yourself. It could be a good day to engage into some fun activities with the children, something a bit out of the ordinary that will inspire them to be more independent also. The conjunction Venus-Vesta (Hestia to the Greeks) is very different, these two planetary energies having certainly more in common than Moon-Ceres have to distant Uranus. Vesta is the feminine power that keeps families and nations together, never letting familiar affection and loyalty’s eternal fire be estinguished, out of neglect or selfishness; while Venus represents the attraction and love that glues us to other human beings, in our endless search for harmony and pleasure. In the sensitive and compassionate Sign of Pisces these Love Goddesses should really open our hearts to the more subtle and psychic aspects of our attachments to other human beings, letting us perceive the underlying unity between them and us, and offering an opportunity to move on from old resentments, via a more understanding and forgiving attitude toward them and ourselves.

After sharing or broadcasting our Cancer Full Moon experiences during the Virgo Disseminating phase (January 13 to 16), we should be now engaging earnestly in some serious inner dialogue during this yearly Libra Last Quarter. The way this dialogue will develop will depend on how much at peace or at war we are with ourselves at present. It could turn out to be an inner, painful struggle with some very personal demons, and/or an opportunity to gain precious insights on what has made this Moon cycle thick (since the Capricorn New Moon on December 25).

What we have ultimately learnt from it? And how can we integrate this ‘lesson’ with our overall life?

A Libra self-reflective phase got to be about relationships, focusing on the ideals we may cherish about them versus their flesh and blood reality.

The Quarter Moon (First or Last) is always a symbol of contrast, the light and the dark faces of the Moon showing us some dual aspects of reality. When this phase occurs in Libra two sides of our relationships becomes more apparent. The aim of Libra is to bring harmony between our life and the lives of other people, to find a common ground that will allow for a peaceful and well balanced existence, when both our individual needs and those of the ‘others’ in our life are met. Too often the ideals and dreams we cultivate about relationships are a far cry from their reality. How to bring harmony in this disharmony? How to reconcile ideal and real?

During the Last Quarter we tend to look within for causes and remedies. So it is within your heart that you will find the answer to this quandary. How much do we abide ourselves to the standards of relating we have set up for other people? Are we always aware of how much of our own psychic baggage we put on others?

Let’s give a look at the transits active a the start of this Libra Last Quarter, to observe what other planetary energies are contributing to this particular phase. The Moon is active in transit, but so are the Sun, Venus, Saturn and Chiron.

Here is the Horoscope for the exact phase, calculated for the coordinates of Wollumbin, Northern Rivers, New South Wales, Australia. The relative positions of the Sun, Moon and Planets to each other and in the Signs will be the same all over the world; while their orientation to the local horizon changes for each locality (Ascendant, Mid-Heaven etc.).

click to view larger image

The Moon is involved in a complex configuration of transits, approaching first a conjunction to Saturn in Libra, then a trine to Neptune in Aquarius, an opposition to Jupiter in Taurus, and finally a trine to Venus and Chiron in Pisces.

The Moon-Saturn conjunction, the first aspect to become exact, gives a serious tone to the whole phase, making us feel more personally responsible for the discordance we may be experiencing in our close relationships, also more able to look realistically at what is going on. Both Saturn and Neptune are on the last degree of the Air Sign of Libra and Aquarius forming a mutual trine that will very close for a while but fail to become exact because of Neptune’s ingress into Pisces on February 4, and Saturn’s retrogradation through Libra, beginning on February 7. The Moon here is forming a link between these two planets, bringing their energies together in occasion of her Last Quarter. Neptune here can help us to get in touch with the more subtle, spiritual aspect of our experiences. So, while we can be practical and focused under the auspices of Saturn, we can also be aware of the mystery and the sense of fate underlying this period, with particular regard to relationships. Neptune highlights the need for compassion and forgiveness, as also do the Moon-Venus trine and the Venus-Chiron conjunction in the Neptunian Sign of Pisces.

As the Moon enters Scorpio, early on January 17, she opposes Jupiter in Taurus. Jupiter resumed his Direct motion in this Earth Sign on December 27. The contact with the Giant Planet gives a boost to the lunar emotions and moods, magnifying them but also giving them meaning, weaving them in the big tapestry of our life, connecting them like new threads to the whole design. Venus is, at the same time, also in sextile (harmonious aspect) to Jupiter, making the whole configuration more auspicious, promising wisdom in matter of love surging from the inner struggle of the Last Quarter Moon. Again compassion, surrendering to what is, rather than struggling toward the unattainable, healing of those wounds of inadequacy that stop us from giving and receiving the human affection and warmth we really need; all these are suggested by the connection of Moon,Venus, Chiron in the Water Signs of Scorpio and Pisces.

The recent ingress of Venus in Pisces (January 14 to February 8) is more than just a monthly Sign change for Venus. Neptune is very close to entering this Sign too (February 4), to remain there until 2025/26. Venus and Neptune are sympathetic planetary energies, embodying the powers of personal and universal love respectively. I can see then how our Evening Star in Pisces is heralding the soon to take place ingress of Neptune in the same Sign, reminding us of the spiritual unity of all human beings and the need to be more inclusive and open to address the ills of the world. Venus has began to show us the way in the context of our own personal relationships before Neptune direct our attention to more collective issues.

Apart from those transits that directly involve the Moon others are also happening at the time of the Last Quarter, the most significant being the trine between the Sun in Capricorn and Mars in Virgo and the separating conjunction of Mercury and Pluto in Capricorn.

Sun-Mars’ contact is an energetic, constructive aspect that could help us to achieve much in action, especially by reforming negative habits and creating healthier and more efficient routines in our daily living. The Mercury-Pluto’s contact provides depth of understanding and the courage to look at the truth within and without. We can now cut through the crap of idle conversation and and get into ‘real’ talking.

personal consultations

Astrological counseling on your most pressing questions: your Spiritual Journey, Love Life and Relationships, Career, Finance, Studies, Relocation, Travel, Future Prospects, etc. (Click top picture for details). Holder of the Federation of Australian Astrologers’ Diploma, winner of the Gold Medal for Excellence 2007, since 1985 I've been working with clients in person, and now all over the world by phone and Skype. I welcome comments on my posts. Enjoy! Paola Emma

Hundred Years of Soli-Lunar Eclipses 1900-2099, courtesy of dateandtime.com

The astrological Moon

The astrological Sun

my Dwads' Table

Work in progress: What the Moon on your birthday will bring to your year...